Own less. Live more. Finding minimalism in a world of consumerism.

my un-minimalist temptation

i am preparing for my biggest becoming minimalist project to date – the kitchen. and i am treating it as the most intentional, strategic project to date as well. based on an article from the new york times, i am doing some research to list every kitchen utensil and gadget that i need to keep and will remove the rest.

the process of intentionally choosing a kitchen utensil list is a good idea. it allows you to focus on your needs and purchase quality goods to last as opposed to drawers and drawers full of cheap things you’ll never use. it should also keep me from making costly errors of removing something that i need to replace later.

obviously, no one list is comprehensive enough for every family so i’ve been looking through several to mix-and-match.

just to show the diversity, one list that i saw mentioned the baker’s edge brownie pan as a “can’t go without item.” it costs about $34 and allows every brownie piece to be an edge piece. i must say the idea is tempting… so tempting that 4 months ago (before we decided to go minimalist) i would probably have made the purchase. but so far, i have resisted the temptation to put it on my list.

Josh – Q: What are you doing with these removed things? Throwing out? Giving away to friends? Away to Charity? Our kitchen is FULL of gadgets (pretty cool ones, or at least I thought so at the time) that we’ll never use…that is one of our projects in the near future, for sure!

We did a full kitchen purge several months ago, and my husband (an amazing cook and our primary food-preparer) was resistant. But I figured after 15 years of marriage we could get rid of the 2nd colander and the stupid plastic crud we were given as wedding gifts. ;)

You’ll be amazed at the difference it makes – -no more hunting through all the junk in the drawers for one spatula. :)

@Gina: I gave mine to the thrift store. Stuff like cookbooks I let friends look through and thrift stored what was left.

gina,
i’m going to send them all back to pampered chef. just kdding.
with the other things in our home that we have removed, we have done one of three things: 1) sold them (thrift sale/ebay/craigs list); 2) donated them (goodwill/vermont refugee program); or 3) discarded of them (recycle/garbage). nice stuff we sell. used stuff we donate. remaining unusables we discard.

christy,
always nice to get encouragement from you. i’m glad to hear that things ended well with the kitchen purging.

I, too, was tempted by that brownie pan. Tempted so much that I left it on my wish list for several months. Resistance paid off: I realized I can create all-edges brownies in my muffin tin. Sure, my brownies are round, but they have great, tasty edges.

I just finished a long kitchen reorganization project. After a purchase no less! I bought new dishes for us after 25 years, and decided to tackle the cabinets. I got rid of 1/2 bag of garbage, 3 boxes to good will and tow bags to the recycle bin. It felt great and my space is so much more usable now.